We Visit the Set of NBC’s White House Comedy 1600 Penn

NBC’s White House-set family sitcom 1600 Penn is set to officially premiere Thursday, Jan 10; NBC already unveiled an advanced “sneak peak” of the pilot on Monday, the 17th following The Voice’s finale.

We traveled to the set of the show and sat down with co-creator/star Josh Gad ("first son" Skip Gilchrest) , Bill Pullman (President Dale Gilchrest), Jenna Elfman (First Lady Emily Nash Gilchrest), Martha MacIsaac (Becca Gilchrest), Amara Miller (Marigold Gilchrest), and co-creator/executive producer Jason Winer to talk about what they hoped to accomplish with this (not so) politically-themed comedy.

“The politics and the White House is a backdrop to tell a story about a family,” Elfman said. “So in the situation room he’s getting parenting advice from the generals. There may be a hint of a domestic policy issue, but it’s just to help tell the family story.”

The setting is there to highlight the domestic antics, and distinguish the show in a sea of half-hour comedies.

“I’ve been asked so many times to be a Dad on TV, but this is our Royalty,” Pullman said. “This is higher stakes and more theatrical than a domestic story in another setting, and there is an incredible contrast between the public life and private life.”

“We want to establish how to find the kooky in the situation, and stay within the bounds of what’s realistic,” Elfman added.

This is, of course, Pullman’s second turn as the leader of the free world. He famously played President Thomas J. Whitmore in 1996’s Independence Day. When asked to reflect on the differences between the two characters, Pullman responded: “Whitmore was in the Air force and he could fly jets, he was military. Gilchrest is an ex-marine, but there is much more of a sense of bravura in Gilchrest. I think he’s really forthright, and that usually comes back to hit him in the face. And he has a second wife that he has to keep jumping through hoops for.”

As to any thinking they’ve done on the life circumstances of the actual first family, Elfman says, “I honestly can’t imagine conducting your life in those circumstances and trying to raise children.”

“It must be really hard to be two young girls who can’t slip in public and say anything that would affect our nation or another nation,” Amara Miller (The Descendents) said of Sasha and Malia Obama. “In a way it’s similar to how it is for actors. I find that the public is looking for anything that can make anybody look bad, and I feel for them, that must be really hard.”

As to the Gilchrest’s party affiliation, Gad says, “There will forever be no mention of this family’s politics.”

The idea, for the creators, is to create as inclusive an environment as possible.

As to the finer points of the series, co-executive producer and former White House speechwriter Jon Lovett has provided details and opportunities that the team would not otherwise have had. In fact, they were able to travel to the White House itself.

“We noticed that the situation room, for example, is just a room off a hallway with a sign on it that says ‘The Situation Room.’ So it’s not in a Kubrician basement," Winer said.

“I got to look in, but, and I will mention names, but two very well-known celebrities ruined it for everybody," Gad added. "They were allowed to sit in there and they started playing with stuff, and the guy who was giving the tour said, 'never again are celebrities allowed in the situation room.'"

"There’s a plastic phone, the kind that would hang in your moms kitchen in 1989 on the wall outside of the situation room," Winer went on. "And I said ‘what’s that there for?’ And the guy goes, 'it doesn’t do anything anymore, but if someone is going in there for the first time we make them pick it up and say all kinds of personal things.' So the phone is there as a practical joke. And that’s our show."